


when i fall in love it will be forever

by Skyepilot



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Director Johnson, Domestic Fluff, Drinking, Eating, F/M, First Dates, First Kiss, First Time, Friends to Lovers, Humor, Implied Sexual Content, Kissing, Male-Female Friendship, Older Man/Younger Woman, Rebuilding, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2019-04-16 10:37:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14162994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyepilot/pseuds/Skyepilot
Summary: Set post S5. Daisy is Director and is rebuilding SHIELD the way she wants.  Coulson is sticking around to be useful, but, is that the only reason?





	when i fall in love it will be forever

She wanted to take some time, after things had settled.

Time is so much now about perspective, about forces in the universe that are so huge and seemingly unstoppable that you can run from it, or you can face it.

They chose to face it together, and she's reminded of her mother as she walks through the reconstruction of the small town near the Lighthouse. At how time and fate twisted her life as well, and took everything that she loved from her, but she was still there, still standing between her people and those who wanted to hurt them.

It turns out that she is more like her mother than she realized.

This new place is a safehaven for people like her. Even though she can't remain hidden from the world, she will make sure that Inhumans are safe, that she will be the SHIELD between them and the Kree and their Confederacy.

And she will be the SHIELD for everyone else, too, and she will rebuild it her way. Because she is also her father's daughter.

She is also in love with a human. Like her mother was before her.

Even through all the pain and suffering and struggle that they've faced, she can't look back on it with regret.

No.

"How are things coming along?"

He is looking down at the plans laid out on the top of the worktable, his sleeves rolled up and he looks like he's just happy she's there.

"We're going to need more money," he tells her with a sigh. "The work is going slow, and some of the materials are costing more than I had budgeted."

"You just had to have those fancy tiles," she teases him. "I wanted them to help build it so that it will mean something to them. That it's theirs, too."

"I know. At least we saved a lot of money on demolition," he reminds her with a smirk.

"Phil, you don't have to do this." This isn't the first time that he's heard it, and puts a hand on his hip. "You should be out there vacationing or celebrating by doing something...cool."

"What?!" he asks, looking offended for a moment. "What's cooler than this? What's the point of getting another life if you're not going to live it?"

She can't really argue with that, can she? She's just glad that he's still here with her. That they stopped the Kree in their tracks. That their lives are woven together so neatly that in the end the thing that was going to take his life ended up saving it.

"What about you?" he asks, her watching her as she's gotten lost in her thoughts.

"SHIELD Directors don't get vacations," she tells him with a shrug. "You should know."

He looks a bit disappointed by the idea of this. That maybe somehow this is his all his fault. And he did want a project, he wanted to help to rebuild and stay busy. She knows the type of guy Coulson is.

And he's the perfect person to represent SHIELD to the Inhumans. They trust him, they see how much she trusts him, and that's been important, too.

But part of her wants to believe that he is sticking around for other reasons. And she doesn't really know how to talk about it after everything they've just been through, when it should be so easy. But it's not.

"SHIELD Directors can have nice dinners," he tells her suddenly, like he's trying to say it before he stops himself. "Like, around 8-ish? Rochester has a pretty good Italian place."

It takes her a moment for it to hit her, the idea of what he's doing. "Me?" she asks, pointing to herself. "You're asking me to-"

"I'm trying," he says with a patient sigh. "It's not going very well, is it?"

He looks away from her, slightly embarrassed, and that is the last thing she wants him to think is going through her mind right now.

"No, no!" she tells him, reaching for his arm to touch him reassuringly, then drawing her hand back. "I mean, yes. What I'm saying is, yes."

"Okay," he answers, with a shy, pleased smile.

She gives him a little wave and leaves when Joey arrives to talk to Coulson about one of the designs, and she watches the two men talk from a distance, as Joey animatedly explains his vision for the complex.

He didn't want to come back to SHIELD, but he did want to put his gifts to use.

This is the first time in a long time that it's really felt like she is building something, too, instead of watching things come apart.

  
###

  
"I figured you might want to drive," he says, getting out of Lola and holding the keys out to her.

Coulson has obviously showered, and she's pretty sure he smells great, that he put on something extra to make an impression, and it's cute, the idea that he went to an extra effort for this.

She's not sure why, because she's known him for years, but she feels all fluttery inside, and like this is different. Just friends having dinner. They've eaten meals together before, but not out, where people could see them together.

"I don't know the place," she tells him. "So you can drive." She wasn't even certain what to wear, because Italian could mean a lot of things, so she's just wearing black. But he's wearing jeans, so it'll be fine. And she doesn't think he would take her to some unbelievably fancy place. Just to keep things casual.

They head out on the highway that takes them around the lake to get to the city, and she takes a moment just to breathe, to be out in the world instead of hiding or having to run. It almost feels impossible that this could be her life now.

Talbot had cleared her name and put in a good word for her. They've reached a tentative agreement to let SHIELD operate, not as a sanctioned US government organization but as global first-responders.

"Weird, isn't it?" he tells her, like he's reading her thoughts. She can see his face in shadows, illuminated when they pass cars along the road. "Not being a fugitive," he clarifies.

"Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing," she replies. "It's...nice? Should I rub a lucky rabbit's foot, or-"

"I think we've got Fate on lockdown at this point," he tells her with a smile. "Is there anything left for it to throw at us?"  
  
She doesn't really want to contemplate it right now, but he changes the topic to something safe, what he was discussing with Joey earlier in the day, and how much he values his ideas and that really Joey should be leading the project, not him.

"I'm thinking about getting one of the houses in the town," he tells her. "Having a place of my own. Nothing too fancy. I've never really put down roots since I've joined SHIELD."

The image of Coulson in a house, getting to fulfill all his domestic wishes makes her unexpectedly happy, and it must show on her face because he pauses to look from the road at her.

"I think it's a great idea," she says, trying not to blush at the attention. "You would really love that."

They pull up to a strip mall and she can see that cars parked all around the restaurant.

"I know it doesn't look like much from the outside," he tells her apologetically. "But it's supposed to be some of the best-"

"It looks perfect," she interrupts, as he pulls into a space further out and puts Lola into park. "Really," she says with a nod, and he stares at her for a moment like he thinks she's perfect, too.

Then her stomach reminds her of how hungry she is, rumbling, and he undoes his seatbelt and starts to get out of the car.

"Let's get you something to eat."

  
###

  
She asks him about houses when the waiter takes their plates away. And if he has his eye on any one in particular, because she's seen the plans and he loves talking about this kind of stuff.

"Wait. Enough about me. What about you?" he asks, sitting back in his chair lifting his glass of wine. "Are you going to stay in the Lighthouse?"

"Isn't this how this sort of works?" she asks him, taking a drink of her beer and putting her elbows on the table. "The Director has always stayed-"

"You can do this any way you want to," he tells her. "You've been doing this the way you've wanted to."

That is not so easy. It's so much easier to think about what she needs to do long-term, getting things set up the right way so that eventually when she isn't here to lead-

"I can help," he offers, sounding tentative at first. "I'm still trying to figure all of this out. We can help each other."

"Is that what tonight is?" she asks him with a teasing tone. "You helping me?"

He pauses for a moment and sets his glass down, twisting the stem between his fingers, fidgeting, as he mulls it over. "No, you said I should be celebrating, and doing something cool."

"And this is your idea of cool," she tells him, finding herself smiling so much she has to look away. She stares out the window for a moment, and thinks about how normal this all seems, so surreal.

"The coolest," he replies, his voice sounding too soft and she looks back at him, and reaches her hand across the table, putting hers over his. They stay that way as her skin starts to feel hot, like the way her powers buzz, only this is pleasant.

Then he brushes his thumb along the top of her hand down to her wrist and she's actually worried she might start sweating she's so warm right now, and he hasn't broken his eye contact, if he is really trying to start something, then she needs-

The waiter shows up again, to ask them about dessert, and there is no way that she not blushing, she feels so ridiculous she wants to hide her face with her sweater.

"I knew it was you," the waiter says, stunned. "You're Quake."

"That's me," she says in tiny voice, glancing up at Phil, who looks delighted that someone recognized her or delighted that she's blushing, or both.

"Maybe get dessert to go?" he suggests, as other people start to look over at their table.

"Yeah, that would be great."

She lifts the menu up to try to hide behind it, as Coulson orders something from the waiter and asks for the bill.

 

###

  
"Was this a date?" she asks him, as they pull Lola up outside of the construction trailers where he's staying.

"Do you want it to be?" he asks her, shutting the car off and propping his elbow up on the window, leaning his head against his knuckles to look at her.

"I need to know that you want it to be," she tells him, taking in a breath. "After everything that's happened, and we have never talked-"

"No, we haven't," he agrees. "I think that things might have started to change when you told me that...that I was everything to you."

"That might seem a tad dramatic in retrospect," she starts to tell him. Because she doesn't want him to think that he owes her anything.

"Daisy, please. Don't say that. It was one of the most meaningful things that anyone has ever said to me. And you saved me. I mean, literally. Although, you've already saved me in so many ways."

"I think," she says, shutting her eyes for a moment, trying to choose her words carefully. "I knew on the first day we met? But it scared me. Nothing like that had ever happened to me, and still hasn't. I always ended up having to let go."

"Well, I'm glad you didn't," he tells her with a smile. It's a familiar smile, and she never gets tired of it, and she never will.

And she kisses the smile right off his face, now that she knows for sure, that she isn't the only one with these feelings, and they all bubble to the surface as her hands twist in the front of his shirt, as he opens his mouth to match her intensity, his arms bracing against the wheel and the seat as she leans over him.

Lola is great, but she's suddenly too small for where she wants this to go. It feels like the world might be too small, and she pulls away for a moment to look down at him, and the word ravished pops into her mind, at the sight of him splayed out in the car seat, trying to read her expression.

"The trailer?" he asks, with a raise of his eyebrows.

"Yes!" she says, moving over to her side of Lola and opening the door, then reaching back to get the box with the cake in it as she follows him up the steps into the trailer.

He holds the door open for her, and then he tosses his wallet and the keys on the kitchenette counter and takes the box from her and set it there, then reaches for her again, pulling her in close, walking her back against the door as he shuts it and twists the lock.

"Stay with me," he tells her.

She's wondering what he's asking, because Couls-Phil, doesn't make requests like this, not the personal kind. "Yeah, okay," she says with a nod, because she would like to keep the momentum they have going.

"I don't just mean tonight," he adds. "I know I'm moving too fast, and that you have other responsibilities, more important-"

"We'll figure it out," she cuts him off. "Together."

She kisses him again, more slowly this time, in case he wants to take things more slowly than she does, but he just pulls her in tighter against him, by her hips and moans into her mouth at the contact, and she brings her hand between them, palming the front of his jeans.

"It's been awhile," he tells her. "Go easy on me."

"We can take it slow," she promises him.

  
###

  
She had forgotten what being on the receiving end of really good sex was like. It has been that long. Like, way too long.

Phil is good in bed, just like he is at everything else that he sets his mind to. He even took his shirt off, although she could tell that his scar makes him uncomfortable, he was doing it as an act of trust. That he feels whole with her.

The little kitchenette has a cheap coffee machine and she digs around in the cabinets till she finds the coffee and starts to brew a pot.

The trailer is small, but really neat and well organized. The bed is really not big enough for two people, but she decided to slip out and let him have it since she kept him up all night.

She wouldn't mind waking up to this feeling every day. Maybe a bigger bed, though. And of course a spot for her computer, because there's only so much she can do on a phone.

His arm is dangling off the side of the bed and she can see the scar on his back where the staff went all the way through when he died once. The band around his forearm where the prosthetic connects. The hand he's missing because he was trying to save lives.

But he looks so peaceful, and handsome. She's always thought he was handsome, even though if you asked exactly what it was that made him that way, she couldn't have been sure all those years ago. Now she knows it's his heart. The way it shines out of him.

He starts to stir, like he's smelling the coffee and it's waking him and he sees her watching him from where she's sat in the chair, and turns on his side so he can raise on an elbow, as the sheet starts to slip down his chest, and he almost thinks to pull it up.

"You're wearing my shirt," he says in a waking voice, like he's very happy about it. "It looks good on you."

"Helped myself to some coffee," she says, holding out the mug to him. "Hope you don't mind."

Taking it from her, he takes a sip and watches her over the rim of the mug, then hands it back to her, and sits up, wrapping the sheet around his waist as he smoothes his hair down.

"Worn out?" she teases him, when he stretches and groans a little, and she draws her legs up into the chair.

"Hey, cut me some slack," he tells her with a smirk, leaning towards her and pulling the office chair on its rollers towards him, until its touching his knees, as he runs his hand along her thigh, looking at her in the morning light coming through the blinds.

She offers him another sip of coffee, and she holds the cup for him, and then he hums a thanks and then leans in and kisses her.

"Come back to bed," he says, as his hand strokes her leg.

"If I'm going to stay, we need to get a bigger bed."

His eyes get larger, and he gives her a serious look. "I will get you the biggest bed I can find. It will take up half of this trailer."

She starts to laugh, then lets down her legs to fit them just inside his. He slips his hand along her neck and pulls her into another kiss, as she starts to undo the buttons on the front of the shirt, as he draws the fabric away, his mouth caressing her shoulder, making soft little dots of kisses along her collarbone that makes her moan.

It obviously gets him going, because he repeats the gesture so she'll do it again, only this time her stomach interrupts to make a rumbling noise and he stops to check in with her, raising his eyebrows.

"I want you, and then cake. In that order."

He presses his smile against her neck.


End file.
